At the end of 2011, I completed a two-year project on Eden's timber workers.
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I photographed at Blue Ridge Hardwoods, South East Fibre Exports, and in the bush at logging sites. My interest was the working lives and conditions of timber workers.
I had never been inside a sawmill or a chip mill and I had no idea what the work consisted of and what the work sites look like.
I was keen to document one of the industries that has underpinned the economy of the town for a long time, but has been undergoing rapid changes in ways that will greatly affect individual lives and the town generally.
The final edited body of work consists of 114 photographs and 42 text pieces from interviews with the men and women workers.
I'm thrilled to announce that the State Library of NSW is buying the complete body of work for its Picture Collection.
The work will not be on display as prints but will eventually be uploaded to the Library's website.
My thanks again to the many people at the mills and in the bush for all the permissions, co-operation and assistance that made the project possible.
For all those people who have asked about the timber workers being seen in Eden I'd like you to know that I did approach the Eden Killer Whale Museum in 2012 with a proposal to exhibit the work, but the proposal was not accepted. I was never given a reason.
Eden is now very well-represented in the NSW State Library.
The timber workers join my fishermen project, Girt by sea, from 2005 and the Eden teenagers project, Now a river went out of Eden, from 2000 in the Picture Collection.
Ruth Maddison
Eden